In July, Nashville-based Counterpoint Messaging came to us for crew and gear to film campaign TV spots for Milwaukee attorney Matt Flynn. Flynn had entered the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary race in hopes of getting the party’s nomination to run against Scott Walker.


This one very full day of filming included multiple locations in Glendale and downtown Milwaukee, culminating at the end of the day with a green screen studio shoot at Big Chair Studios in Waukesha. A big shout-out to all our great crew folks and equipment suppliers who made all this possible.

Gaffer - Chris Marks. Grip - Mike Schmit. Grip - Shaun Buehler. AC - Mike Krieger. Location Sound - Tom Beach. Hair & Makeup - Jhousy Leon. Prompter - Fred Graber. PA -Taran Molnar. Lighting & Grip - Electric Sun Corp.

Tags: Hair and Makeup, Lighting and Grip

You’ve probably seen those Sargento Cheese www.sargento.com TV commercials that feature the company’s owners - Lou and Louis (Louie) Gentine - delivering this line while standing in front of a picturesque old barn. To anyone in the video business, it’s obvious the two men are actually filmed in a studio against green screen. But to most TV viewers, the shot looks realistic because of how well the camera perspective and studio lighting is matched to the background image.

For the most recent spot promoting Sargento’s new Snack Bites, producer Jon Messner and Sargento’s ad agency, Oglivy & Mather www.ogilvy.com reached out to Fresh Coast Production Resources for a turnkey solution.

At Fresh Coast, we pride ourselves on our ability to assemble just the right combination of crew, equipment, and production management to meet our client’s needs and expectations. This job was a perfect example.

We chose RDI Stages www.rdimage.com in Milwaukee for the shoot because it would be convenient for the Gentines who would be coming from Sargento’s corporate offices in Plymouth WI. RDI was also spacious enough to accommodate the large broad light sources necessary to match the overcast lighting of the barn.

We were able to source all the equipment, and most of the crew in Milwaukee. Lighting and grip came from Blue Moon Lights www.bluemoonlights.com and DP Mike Gillis www.mikegillisdp.com provided the client-specified Arri 4K camera and lens package. www.arri.com/camera/amira . Gaffer on the shoot was Ryan Brooks. Tim Moder served as swing grip and AC. Tom Beach handled the audio mix, and the makeup artist was Jhousy Leon www.blushmilwaukee.com.

Two non-Milwaukee exceptions were Director Ray Dillman who the agency brought in from New York http://rabbitcontent.com/directors/ray-dillman , and Chicago Stylist Martha Heppler because she had provided wardrobe for previous Sargento spots featuring the Gentines.

As we expected, everyone did a great job. The shoot was quick and painless, and by mid afternoon the footage was on its way to Optimus www.optimus.com in Chicago for post-production.

See the finished TV commercial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ginlh0ADG2E

Tags: Lighting and Grip, Arri Amira 4K Camera

We’ve been fortunate to have Chicago-based water conditioning equipment manufacturer RainSoft www.rainsoft.com as a client for nearly 20 years. During that time we’ve produced video and graphics content for their marketing efforts and annual dealer sales conferences. Our most recent project was an iPad-based product knowledge video to train Home Depot www.homedepot.com sales associates on RainSoft products.

On-camera talent portions were filmed on green-screen with store backgrounds added in post. When combined with in-store footage and graphics, the resulting video provided RainSoft with a highly effective, yet economical training solution.

Tags: Canon EOS C100 Cinema Camera

Does it make any sense to fly a video crew 4,000 miles round trip to the Dominican Republic to film “talking heads” on green screen?   For Chicago water treatment systems manufacturer RainSoft, the answer was yes!

Every year RainSoft holds awards banquets to honor outstanding employees from their nation-wide network of dealers.  Each award winner is introduced with pre-recorded video comments from dealer management and RainSoft regional directors. Fresh Coast has produced these videos for a number of years, and in the past it has meant traveling to dozens of dealerships scattered around the U.S. and Canada to film the interviews.
 

Also each year, RainSoft hosts Gold Circle dealer meetings (typically in exotic locales) that bring all their dealers and regional directors together in the same place at the same time.  This year it was at the Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic.  So with one trip, and a little green screen magic, Fresh Coast was able to film all the interviews in a single day, and make it look like we traveled to all those dealerships.